Thursday, March 28
Bowling Green, OH
7:00 PM
Bowling Green State University
47
vs
50
Drexel (WNIT third round)
Drexel Ends Falcons' Season, 50-47, in WNIT Third Round
March 28, 2013 | Women's Basketball
Mershon leads Dragons to narrow win at the Stroh Center
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FINAL STATISTICS: HTML | PDF
POSTGAME AUDIO: Chrissy Steffen | Miriam Justinger | Jennifer Roos
POSTGAME VIDEO: Chrissy Steffen | Miriam Justinger | Jennifer Roos
BGSU-DREXEL HIGHLIGHTS: Courtesy WBGU-TV
PHOTO GALLERY: Brad Phalin, BGSU Marketing & Communications
With the win, the Dragons improve to 25-10 on the season, and Drexel advances to the WNIT's quarterfinal round to face Auburn. The Falcons see the season come to an end with a 24-11 record.
Mershon scored a game-high 19 points, including her team's last nine points of the night. She had 12 of the Dragons' final 15 points of the game, and assisted on the other three.
Seniori Chrissy Steffen acored a team-leading 14 points in her last game as a Falcon. Redshirt junior Alexis Rogers had 12 points, while true junior Jill Stein had nine points and a game-high nine rebounds.
The game was the final collegiate contest for Steffen and fellow fourth-year Falcons Simone Eli, Danielle Havel and Allison Papenfuss. That quartet helped BGSU to 103 wins, an average of nearly 26 wins per season, during their time at BGSU.
Thursday's game featured seven ties and six lead changes, and the lead changed hands three times in a 43-second span with under four minutes to go.
A driving layup by Mershon knotted the score at 43-all with 3:10 left, and she was fouled on the play. The DU senior completed the three-point play to give the Dragons the lead.
BGSU quickly responded when Rogers leaped high over a Drexel defender to grab a lob from junior Jillian Halfhill, and Rogers quickly banked the ball home for a 45-44 Falcon advantage. But, Mershon responded with a layup in traffic, giving her team the lead for good with 2:27 remaining.
The Falcons missed a three-point try on the next possession, and BG was called for a foul with 2:01 on the clock. Rogers stole the ball from Mershon, but BG could not capitalize, as a shot by Halfhill would not drop. Mershon rebounded the ball and the Dragons called a timeout with 1:03 left.
After another DU timeout with 44.1 seconds left, Mershon missed a layup try with the shot clock nearing zero, and the ball went out of bounds to BG with 38.6 seconds on the clock.
The next possession saw the Falcons get the ball to Steffen in the left corner, but her three-point shot did not go down. Drexel's Renee Johnson-Allen rebounded the ball and was fouled. The foul, however, was just BG's sixth of the half.
On the ensuing inbounds play, Steffen very nearly tied Mershon up for a jump ball with 20.9 seconds left. However, the BG senior was whistled for a foul, and Mershon went to the line for a one-and-one opportunity. She hit both shots for a 48-47 lead.
BG's next possession resulted in a driving layup by freshman Miriam Justinger with 5.3 seconds remaining, and BGSU coach Jennifer Roos quickly called a timeout. Drexel could not inbound the ball, and the Dragons used a timeout as well. Out of the latter timeout, BGSU was called for a foul, and Mershon went back to the line. She sank both free-throw tries for a three-point lead, and Halfhill's contested three-point try fell short as the final buzzer sounded.
BGSU shot 39.0 percent from the field, while holding Drexel to just a 35.6% success rate. Both teams made 16 field goals and 11 free throws in the game. But, the Dragons hit seven three-pointers, including five in the opening half, while BG was 4-of-16 from long distance on the night.
The Falcons got off to a slow start offensively in each half. In the opening period, BG fell behind by a 12-4 count. Meghan Creighton gave the Dragons a 3-0 lead with just over a minute gone, before Halfhill fed Rogers for a short jumper.
The visitors, however, scored the next seven points, with four in a row from Johnson-Allen followed by a Mershon three-pointer. Rogers corralled an offensive rebound in traffic, was fouled and knocked down both resulting free throws, but Taylor Wootton answered with two shots from the stripe.
The Falcons, after scoring just four points in the first eight-plus minutes, proceeded to go on a 14-0 run, holding the Dragons without a point for a span of 7:38.
That run began innocently enough, as Papenfuss split a pair of free throws. Then, Steffen knocked down a three-point try from the top of the arc, and the Falcons were within four points.
Steffen made it five points in a row, slipping past her defender on a baseline drive for a layup, and Justinger went to the floor to come up with a steal and give the ball back to the Falcons. The freshman hit a triple on the next possession, giving the Brown and Orange a 13-12 lead.
Moments later, after a BG miss, Rogers rebounded the ball and put it right back up for an 'and-one' layup. The free throw gave the Falcons a 16-12 advantage, and Justinger's up-and-under layup put BGSU on top by six points with just over seven minutes left in the half.
Mershon ended the Dragons' drought with a layup, but Stein hit a nifty turnaround jumper off glass. But, back-to-back three-pointers, by Creighton and Rachel Pearson, knotted the score at 20-all with 3:20 left in the half.
Steffen hit her second trey of the night, but Pearson struck again. But, after Wootton missed a shot and Steffen rebounded the ball in the final seconds of the half, Halfhill hit a long runner as the horn sounded. At first, Halfhill's buzzer-beater was ruled a three-pointer, but after the officials consulted the video replay, the shot was changed to a two-pointer. The Falcons led, 25-23, at the break.
BG struggled at the start of the second period, and DU scored the first five points, capped by Johnson-Allen's jumper at the 17:55 mark. Steffen hit a driving layup with the shot clock winding down, but layups by Wootton and Mershon gave the Dragons a 32-27 lead.
BG missed two three-point tries on the next possession, but offensive rebounds by Justinger and Halfhill kept that possession alive, and Steffen drained a third-chance layup from the left corner to cut DU's lead to two points.
But, after a Rogers free throw, the visitors scored five-straight points to take a 37-31 lead with exactly 11 minutes remaining. Stein, however, got the Falcons even with a pair of three-point plays.
First, the junior banked home a shot while drawing a foul from Wootton. Her free throw with 10:39 left cut DU's lead to three points. Then, with 8:13 on the clock, Stein grabbed a teammate's missed shot, hit a layup and was fouled by Fiona Flanagan. The ensuing charity toss tied the game.
Mershon spilt a pair of free throws, but Stein hit a shot from the stripe to pull the Falcons even. Three more BGSU free throws -- two by Halfhill and one by Steffen -- gave BG a 41-38 lead with 4:50 to go.
Mershon, however, drove the lane and kicked a pass to Pearson on the right wing, and Pearson's three-point try was on target, tying the score with 4:31 remaining. Rogers fought off Mershon's defensive efforts, powering inside for a layup and a 43-41 BG lead, but Mershon's three-point play with 3:10 to go gave the visitors a 44-43 advantage and set the stage for the final minutes of action.
The 2012-13 Falcons tied the school records for home wins (14) and total games played (35), and BGSU won at least 20 games for the 10th consecutive year, a Mid-American Conference record. A total of eight underclass players are slated to return for the Falcons in 2013-14, along with three incoming freshman and an NCAA transfer (Erica Donovan) who sat out the '12-13 season.
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